Shiritori
by ShadowofUndine
Summary: PreTower lightheartedness. Our heroes play an innocent word game... or do they? OneShot.


_Shiritori_

"Toast!" Lloyd screamed defensively. This game was getting harder and harder every time it went around. It wasn't his fault he didn't know that many big words, like Genis or the Professor.

Colette giggled. "Um... tomato?" Lloyd shivered reflexively, and barely managed to suppress a retch. That word shouldn't even be allowed to exist.

"Octopus." Kratos added.

"Ew!" Genis countered. "You actually eat that?" Lloyd had to agree with Genis. That stuff was pretty gross, but he was smart enough not to voice that opinion. Just like the tomatoes. He shivered again; even thinking about that word... It was horrible. How could anyone eat, much less look at, those vegetables from hell?

The mercenary smirked. "Out."

His friend's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. "Aw, man! You did that on purpose!"

"Spicy Cake," The Professor said, trying to console her brother, but failing because she just sounded amused to the twin blade.

_E... E... What food starts with 'E?'_ Lloyd's thoughts spiraled as he realized his turn had come around again. Watermelon? No. Apple? No. Eel? No, Kratos already used that one. He held back a sigh. This really wasn't fair. How come he couldn't think of a word when everyone else thought this game was easy?

He squinted his eyes in thought, but all he could think about was that he was hungry. Maybe he could ask Genis to make Fried Rice for lunch. Then, it came to him. "Egg."

"Green!" Colette cheerfully exclaimed.

The professor sighed. "Out. Colette, 'green' is a color."

Next to his teacher, Kratos, his other teacher, shook his head, wisely keeping silent. Even Lloyd knew about a green. They were nasty, icky vegetables, but he knew about them.

Genis slapped his head before explaining. "Raine, a green is a leafy vegetable, like spinach, or chard." Lloyd had no idea what a chard was, but shrugged it off, assuming his friend, the genius, knew what he was talking about. Especially when it came to food; he was one of the best cooks in Iselia.

She paled. "What?"

"Out." Kratos said slowly, smirking scarily. He scooted away from the mercenary without thinking. Lloyd thought that the guy shouldn't smile; it was too scary when he did it.

The professor huffed, an evil gleam in her eyes, just daring anyone to get close. Even Lloyd wasn't _that_ stupid. He stepped away from her, too.

_"Nilzeth._" Kratos continued.

"!" Lloyd opened his mouth to retort before he caught himself, closing it. Kratos wouldn't get him with that this time.

"You're not supposed to use other languages!" Genis cried, still clearly angry with Kratos for tripping him up. Again. How many times would Genis fall for the same trick? Maybe he wasn't as smart as Lloyd thought.

Kratos waved his hand in Colette's direction, giving her permission to speak out-of-turn and explain for him. "Actually," Colette started, blushing, "it means 'noodle,' so it's okay."

"Show off..." Lloyd muttered. Just because he knew another language didn't mean he had to go around _flaunting_ it like that. Stupid show off.

"Out." The show off's voice floated to his ears.

"Wha-?" He didn't remember doing anything out of the rules. He thought back. Wait. He'd actually said that? Lloyd growled at the fact that his mouth just took over sometimes. That wasn't his fault. "Stupid game..."

"It's okay, Lloyd," Colette came over, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you'll do better next time."

"Out." Kratos interjected, clearly amused at the turn the events were taking. How many times had this happened again? He'd lost count. That stupid mercenary was too good at this game.

Colette cocked her head to the side, confused. After a moment, she nodded. "Oh, no. I lost."

"Want to play again?" Kratos questioned offhandedly.

"_No!_"

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Disclaimer: I am not Namco.

A/N: Random idea I came up with while trying to cheer a fellow ToS fan up. I apologize for the shortness. I'm almost done with my next serious OneShot; I promise. And, yes, I know a tomato is a fruit, but Lloyd does not.

Rules of the game: _Shiritori_ is an actual game, which originated in Japan. In ToS, there's the lady upstairs in the Asgard House of Salvation you can play it with. The object of the game is that one person says a word and the next person says a word that begins with the last letter of the word before Example: Thunder -- Rain.

In this case, however, there's a theme involved: Food items. This is a common theme in the true Japanese version of the word game and it's one of the reasons I chose it the other reason you'd have to know me to understand. So, if the first person was to say "Potato," and the next person was to say, "Outside," the second player would lose.

I added a couple rules for pure amusement on my part. So far as I know, this game is only played with two people, but, here, it's played with all five of them. I just made it where they spoke in a certain order Lloyd, Colette, Kratos, Genis, and Raine. The second rule is in tribute to a game called "Mau" if I remember correctly that I was forced to play once in high school. In it, you didn't tell new players what the rules were, but just let them figure it out on their own. One of the main rules in it was that you could not speak out-of-turn. Evil rule, I know.


End file.
